Chapter 19: : Chapter 19

Not even twenty-four hours out of my sight, my fiancée needs to be taught her first lesson.

“Do you want to tell us what this is about, boss?” Hawke asks from the passenger seat. Ford is driving and staring at me through the rearview mirror as I check how many bullets I have in my gun.

I had every intention of dealing with a business partner who’d gone stray, but the moment I was notified Jewel went to some run-down Chinese restaurant and is sitting across from three men, I saw red.

“No. Just be ready for cleanup.”

I’m thinking clearly, I know that.

It’s the most clarity I’ve experienced in a long time.

When I claim something as mine, it is deeply, irrevocably my possession.

Jewel will learn a lesson tonight: If she chooses to see other men, then she might as well be the one pointing the gun at their heads.

Ford pulls over at the curb, and I step out of the car without so much as giving them a second glance. I adjust my suit as I storm inside the restaurant. There aren’t many people here so late in the evening. A hostess approaches me, but the moment she sees the gun in my hand, she screams and runs into the kitchen. Customers begin to scatter out of the shitty restaurant.

Laughter catches my attention, and I turn toward the head of auburn hair in the private section of the room. It’s her friend Sage’s laughter, and some guy is smiling across from her, brushing his thumb against hers.

My little tigress, however, seems less fierce than usual. She’s throwing back a drink with three empty glasses beside her. The two men across from her greedily stare at her despite her dismissive attitude toward them.

I barrel up to their table, and Sage screams. Jewel looks up in a daze, and then rage quickly sparks to life in her eyes.

“You’re not invited,” she snarls.

I offer a tight smile. “I am wherever my fiancée is.”

That’s when her gaze drops to the gun and realization sinks in. “Don’t you fucking⁠—”

I aim for the first man on the left and shoot him between the eyes. Sage screams again as Jewel jumps over her. By the time I’ve shot the second guy, she’s standing in front of the remaining two protectively. Interesting. I didn’t take her to care much about her colleagues, but apparently, even she’ll draw a line somewhere.

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” she growls, and if ever she’s looked like a protective tigress, it’s now. I can only imagine how fiercely she might protect her own.

My fiancée.

I wonder what it might feel like to have that same loyalty.

I try to shake the thought away, along with the humming in my veins. I don’t entirely understand it. But she’s mine, and no one will so much as look at her.

Her friend is sobbing behind her, and the remaining man seems perplexed as he mourns his friends but tries to also cower under the table.

“Ah shit,” Hawke says behind me, finally understanding why we’re here, but I don’t pay him any attention. I’m completely focused on the furious, amber-eyed woman sneering at me.

“What do you want?” she asks.

“Out. Now,” I command.

Her gaze narrows on me, but she straightens her spine and approaches me. I notice the slight wobble of her walk. Is she drunk?

She follows me into the main room, where almost everyone has cleared out. Ford is offering compensation to those who remain—most likely the owner and a few staff members. Hawke quickly steps into the room we just left.

She snaps at me. “Do you⁠—”

I shove her against the wall with my hand around her throat. She doesn’t seem surprised if the knife at my balls is any indicator. She lets the tip of it dig into my inner thigh. My cock twitches, thinking about her tracing lines into my skin. My gaze drops to those fuckable lips. The way they part and her hot breath mingles with my own.

I want her.

This fiancée of mine needs to be taught lessons.

Punished in a way only I can deliver.

My blood is pumping with adrenaline as our lips inch closer.

The urge to take her and make her mine courses through my veins.

She smells of alcohol so strongly I can almost taste it on my own tongue.

“Jealous much?” she snarls.

“I don’t share,” I bite back, unable to contain the fury swirling within me. There’s an underlying emotion driving it that I don’t entirely understand but refuse to look further into. “You won’t pull this little stunt again, do you hear me?”

She hiccups, her throat bobbing under my tight grip. “You don’t own me.”

“I do in every sense of the word unless you want more people to die around you. We’re not playing anymore. You are my fiancée, and you will be obedient.”

She laughs hysterically as if the word obedient itself puts her in a delirium.

“Jewel?” Her friend’s voice slips from the door. She’s in shock. “I’m going to go home.”

I angle my head toward her and the man at her side. Hawke is standing behind them, efficient and effective in his threats and damage control. Ford has most likely bought out the owner for their silence and explained the consequences if any of this were to leak.

Jewel remains silent, her mouth opening and closing as if she can’t seem to think of what to say. When her friend begins to walk out, Jewel pins me with a glare. “If you so much as touch her…”

“I never wanted to be here in the first place.” I sneer at her. “You did this.”

She scoffs and pushes at my hand. I roll my shoulders and step back, uncomfortable with not touching her. It’s as if I have to leave my mark. Make her truly understand who she belongs to now.

“Emotional warfare doesn’t work on me, asshole.” She hiccups.

“We had an agreement,” I grit.

She pops one hand casually on her hip. “I conveyed to you that I don’t do well with being told what to do.”

“Then you better learn pretty fucking quickly. Now, get in the car.”

A wild storm brews in her eyes as she weighs her options. But I am not to be trifled with right now. On other occasions, I was lenient with her; some might even call me kind. But right now, I will have my way, no matter what.

It’s as if she recognizes that because she mumbles a complaint under her breath as she walks to the front door, with a slight sway to her step.

Hawke gives her a sympathetic expression but says nothing as I pocket my gun and follow my stubborn fiancée.